The Paris Review (Nos. 230, 232, 233) and other magazines

Writing and Reading – My favorite magazines these days, in no particular order:

The Paris Review – the classic literary magazine; the place where stories, poems, interviews and artwork come together to host the perfect salon. A bracing little poem, “The Mercy,” from Joyce Carol Oates. A magical tale by Rebecca Makkai. “A Story for Your Daughters, A Story for Your Sons.” An interview with Alice McDermott in which she reveals how she approaches class reading lists when she teaches the short novel, dividing the list into three loose categories:

• A Day in the Life – for example, Bellow’s “Seize the Day,” Woolf’s “Mrs. Dalloway,” Solzhenitsyn’s “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich”
• An Inciting Incident – for example, Marquez’s “Chronicle of a Death Foretold,” Wharton’s “Ethan Frome”
• A Life – for example, McCuller’s “The Member of the Wedding,” Mona Simpson’s “Off Keck Road.”

 The New Yorker – issue after issue, America’s best-written, best-edited magazine.

 Sport Literate – my longtime favorite among what used to be called the “little magazines,” these essays and poems and throwback photos always make me feel like I’m coming home.

 The London Review of Books – Always good to get the perspective from those across the pond.

 Esquire – mostly for old time’s sake and because my pal Gordon Meyer advised me to take a second look after I had let my subscription lapse for a couple of years. I’m glad to be back.

 The Gay & Lesbian Review – I have only just subscribed. Call me a tardy gay. Eavesdropping on conversations among Edmund White, Andrew Holleran and Felice Picano, and essays on Gore Vidal and Marcel Proust await.